Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure search results

• US 9,015,141 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2011
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Ravindran, Balaji
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US13/023,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20120203757A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,533 Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure search results are disclosed. A disclosed example method to measure search results includes identifying a preview event for a search result associated with a search query, and storing the preview event in association with a search engine identifier and a web page identifier.

Claims

1. A method to measure search results, comprising:

identifying, using a processor, a first preview event for a first search result associated with a search query, the first preview event occurring during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the first preview event comprising execution, by a browser, of an instruction included in a web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a first request for a first representation of first web content for display in the web page without navigating the browser away from the web page, the first representation being associated with the first search result; and

storing multiple preview events based on multiple requests for representations of multiple items of web content during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed, the multiple preview events including the first preview event, the multiple requests including the first request, and the representations of multiple items of web content including the first representation of the first web content, wherein storing the preview events comprises storing an identifier of the first preview event in association with a search engine identifier and a web page identifier.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining a preview metric based on a number of the multiple preview events for the first search result and a number of search result impressions.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining a preview metric based on a number of the multiple preview events for the first search result and a number of selections for the first search result.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the preview event comprises at least one of a mouse-over action causing the browser to transmit the first request or a hover action causing the browser to transmit the first request.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first request comprises a preview request transmitted from the browser.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining whether the first search result is selected.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, further comprising reporting the first preview event and whether the first search result was selected to a data processing facility.

24. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first search result comprises a link to the first web content, the first search result being in the list of search results associated with the search query.

8. An apparatus to measure search results, comprising:

a preview identifier to identify a first preview event for a first search result associated with a search query, the first preview event to occur during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the first preview event associated with execution, by a browser, of an instruction included in a first web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a first request for first metadata to be presented in the first web page without navigating the browser away from the first web page, the first metadata associated with a second web page, the second web page associated with the first search result; and

a storage device to store multiple preview counts based on multiple requests for metadata corresponding to multiple items of web content during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed, wherein the storage device is to store the preview counts by storing a first preview count for the first preview event, the multiple requests including the first request, and the metadata corresponding to multiple items of web content including the first metadata.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the first request comprises a preview request from the browser.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the storage device is to store one or more of a search result web page, a search engine identification, a number of impressions for the first search result, a number of preview events for the first search result, a number of selections for the first search result, or a rank of the first search result.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the first preview event comprises at least one of a mouse-over action causing the browser to transmit the first request or a hover action causing the browser to transmit the first request.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a selection identifier to determine whether the first search result is selected.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 12, wherein the selection identifier is to identify whether the first search result was selected by identifying a second request to a web page identified in the first search result.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a search monitor to monitor for a search query.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 14, wherein the search monitor is to report the first preview event to a data processing facility.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 14, wherein the search monitor is to identify the first search result and store an impression for the first search result.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the preview identifier is to determine a preview metric based on the preview event and at least one of a number of selections for the first search result or a number of impressions for the first search result.

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the first search result comprises a link to the second web page, the first search result being in the list of search results associated with the search query.

18. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to at least:

monitor for a search query entered into a web site;

identify a first preview event for a first search result associated with the search query, the first preview event occurring during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the first preview event associated with execution, by a browser, of a second instruction included in a first web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a first request for first metadata to be presented in the first web page without navigating the browser away from the first web page, the first metadata associated with a second web page, the second web page associated with the first search result;

determine whether the first search result is selected; and

store multiple preview events based on multiple requests for metadata corresponding to multiple items of web content during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed, the multiple preview events including the first preview event, the multiple requests including the first request, and the metadata corresponding to multiple items of web content including the first metadata, wherein storing the multiple preview events comprises storing data identifying the first preview event and indicating whether the first search result was selected.

19. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to at least determine a preview metric based on a number of the multiple preview events for the first search result and a number of search result impressions.

20. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to at least determine a preview metric based on a number of the multiple preview events for the first search result and a number of selections for the first search result.

21. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the first preview event comprises at least one of a mouse-over action causing the browser to transmit the request or a hover action causing the browser to transmit the request.

22. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein identifying the first preview event comprises identifying a preview request transmitted from the browser.

23. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to at least report the first preview event and whether the first search result was selected to a data processing facility.

26. A storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the first search result comprises a link to the second web page, the first search result being in the list of search results associated with the search query.

27. A method to measure search results, comprising:

identifying, using a processor, a preview event for a first search result associated with a search query, the preview event occurring during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the preview event comprising execution, by a browser, of an instruction included in a web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a request for a representation of web content for display in the web page without navigating the browser away from the web page, the representation being associated with the first search result; and

storing an identifier of the preview event in association with a search engine identifier and a web page identifier by storing the identifier of the preview event a single time during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed irrespective of a number of times the representation of the web content is requested by the browser during the single occurrence.

28. An apparatus to measure search results, comprising:

a preview identifier to identify a preview event for a first search result associated with a search query, the preview event to occur during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the preview event associated with execution, by a browser, of an instruction included in a first web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a request for metadata to be presented in the first web page without navigating the browser away from the first web page, the metadata associated with a second web page, the second web page associated with the first search result; and

a storage device to store a preview count for the preview event a single time during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed irrespective of a number of times the metadata is requested by the browser during the single occurrence.

29. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to at least:

monitor for a search query entered into a web site;

identify a preview event for a first search result associated with the search query, the preview event occurring during display of a list of search results including the first search result, the preview event associated with execution, by a browser, of a second instruction included in a first web page containing the search results that causes the browser to transmit a request for metadata to be presented in the first web page without navigating the browser away from the first web page, the metadata associated with a second web page, the second web page associated with the first search result;

determine whether the first search result is selected; and

store data identifying the preview event and indicating whether the first search result was selected a single time during a single occurrence of the web page being displayed irrespective of a number of times the metadata is requested by the browser during the single occurrence.